Surgical repair and/or reconstruction procedures including those employing implants are widely used in dental and oral surgery for restoration of the jaw anatomy. These procedures are often used to treat bone defects and disorders of the jaw, which may result and/or be caused from periodontal diseases, bone, gum and/or tooth loss, trauma, tumors, infections and other complications. New bone growth is often desired to repair a defect or to build up the jawbone so that sufficient bone exists to embed and retain an implant.
In some cases, a ridge augmentation procedure is employed to add bone to the jaw so that sufficient alveolar bone exists for implant and/or tooth retention. Such procedures can employ a spacing device to facilitate bone growth. After new bone has formed, the devices employed during the augmentation are removed. However, the removal of these devices can cause tissue disruption that undesirably exposes new bone and disrupts vascularity, or can be difficult to remove due to bone overgrowth. This disclosure describes an improvement over these prior art technologies.